Picture this: the doors have slid open, the gust of cold air hits us, and now we’re faced with the 45,000 products the average supermarket carries. Aside from feeling purely overwhelmed at deciding what and how to choose what goes into our carts, along with our rushed, over-scheduled lives, we seem to spend more time thinking about what goes ON our bodies (like clothes and shoes) than what goes IN them.

So many food labels are difficult to decode – perhaps the reason why 60-70 percent of what we purchase is unplanned. We often fall prey to items that wear descriptive names, like “natural” and “wholesome” and “organic”…these words are like magnets attracting us to their otherwise less attractive products. Studies have shown that when a food is deemed superior through a name, it is more likely that people would expect the food to be beneficial to their health. Trans-fat free fries, baked chips, and organic candies are all surrounded by health halos, yet some halos are far from angelic.

But you shouldn’t have to be a mathematician, a librarian, or a dietitian to buy the right foods. The food label should be like the table of contents of a book – it should tell us what’s inside. Unfortunately, misleading labels lurk throughout the store and I’m here today to give you the inside scoop on what’s really going on between the lines. Here are a few examples of some personal favorite ‘wall of shame’ claims where food companies are selling sound bites instead of sound advice.
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With a new year comes tons of resolutions. Most people vow to lose weight with lots of exercising, but they forget to change their diet to accommodate their workouts. While a healthy diet can help shed pounds effectively, eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself. A healthy diet should leave you feeling energized and stabilize your mood, not to mention satisfied. With thousands of diets out on the market we recommend choosing from one of the four diets: low-fat diet, low-carb diet, low-sodium diet, and high-fiber diet.

When you combine the primary principles of each of these very basic diet ideals, you get a pretty well-rounded healthful approach to eating that can be summarized as “Paleo-ish,” according to Biggest Loser dietitian Cheryl Forberg, RD. Since you are eating no grains (low carb), no dairy (lower fat), nothing processed (no added sodium), and unlimited fruits and vegetables (high fiber) it becomes strikingly similar to the Paleo, or caveman, diet.

Bonnie Taub-Dix, author of Read It Before You Eat It and nutrition expert in New York, also commented on how all four diets could work well together if one chooses to eat a low-fat, low-carb, low-sodium, and high-fiber diet.

“We have a diabetes epidemic and a high-fiber and low-carb diet can help control blood sugar levels. There is a large percentage of people with diabetes who should keep an eye on sodium and fat intake because eating a low-fat and -sodium diet can control heart disease and blood pressure.”

Learn more about each of these diets and see how one or some might suit your health and weight loss goals.
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Fun-loving Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas is not only the perfect party guest because she always knows which song to spin next, but she’s also got the inside skinny on the best cocktails. She’s the face of Voli Vodka, a line of lower calorie flavored vodkas. She told Chelsea Handler this fall that her daily vodka consumption varies by the week, saying, “If I have one drink a day, I feel better the next day than if I don’t drink at all. I’m just gonna start drinking daily.”

She’s clearly fit, firm and fabulous (Fergalicious to be exact), so how does she do it if she’s swilling vodka on a daily basis? Certainly her 4-6 workouts in the gym every week, but she’ll also tell you it’s because she’s not drinking just any vodka. She’s drinking Voli Vodka, which has 74 calories per shot. A standard shot of vodka has about 100 calories.

Sure, 26 calories is a fair savings when you’re drinking one cocktail or a few, especially daily. But does it really matter when they are still nutritionally void, empty calories? Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN, author of Read It Before You Eat It and nutrition expert in NY, says not so much.

“My take on this is that many people think that if you don’t chew — it doesn’t count — and that’s simply not true.” Those calories most certainly still count, and maybe more than most because they’re typically accompanied by a lot of sugar – like juice and other mixers.

We showed Bonnie the Fergatini, Voli’s branded version of a Cape Cod, with Voli Lyte, Fresh Lime Juice, and Cranberry Juice.

“Think about it — in this cocktail of 82 calories — only 1-1/2 oz or 1 jigger of vodka is used. How many of us pour just one shot?,” she asked. “That won’t happen at a friend’s party! It also only includes one ounce of juice. That rarely happens too because many of the calories in alcohol are contributed by the mixers.”
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If you bring along your calculator and dictionary to the grocery store in order to decode food nutrition labels, your trip just got a little lighter and hopefully a lot healthier.

Registered dietitian Bonnie Taub-Dix did all health conscious consumers a tremendous favor with her latest book, Read It Before You Eat It: How to Decode Food Labels and Make the Healthiest Choice Every Time. This book, which is compact enough to place in your purse, serves as a guide to help you navigate your way through the mysterious and challenging world of food label reading.

Recent studies have shown that being a wise consumer plays a significant role in choosing between a seemingly healthy health food and a genuinely healthy health food. And accurately reading food labels not only determines what we put into our grocery carts, but it also greatly impacts our health.
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